Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Digital and Social Media


God doesn't believe in the easy way 


— James Agee, born on this date in 1909


1. Have a good bullshit detector

2. Fear nothing and no one... 

3. Be tender with those who care **** the rest

I looked at that feedback, and realized that most people can’t reason; can’t separate morals from interests; can’t separate ethics from identity, and so on.  Worse many couldn’t even separate their own interests in terms of  health, money and staying alive from tribal identity. To put it simply, they were living in completely delusional fantasy worlds, so separate from any even vaguely objective reality that they might as well be living in a TV show (and, in effect, many are.) Yes, they were incapable of basic ethical and moral reasoning.  Yes, many were incapable of thinking a few years into the future, or evaluating opportunity cost (look it up.)  Yes, if they identified with a politician or a group, they were largely incapable of applying ethical rules or even self interest to the actions of that politician.
Why I Write Ian Welsh


The object we call a book is not the real book, but its potential, like a musical score or seed ... 86 pieces of journalism wisdom published in the month since the election


Failover failure ATO






… A Rage to Write | The Weekly Standard

“…You can enable 2FA for your Gmail account on Google’s single settings page, so your new, more secure settings will apply across other Google services like Google Drive and Google+. Google calls it “two-step verification,” but the idea is exactly the same: if signing in requires something you have (like your phone) as well as something you know (your password), then your account has an added layer of protection…”



Claim: Small Presses Are Doing The Heavy Lifting In the Publishing Business



“Are big publishers unwilling to take risks any more? Increasingly, ‘risky’ authors, those who’ve been rejected over and over again by traditional publishers or dozens of agents, are being picked up by small presses whose modus operandi is to take risks on literature that is exciting, innovative, or that they deem important either stylistically or politically. Then the big publishers swoop in and profit from the hard work and risk-taking of the small presses.”

Google, democracy and the truth about internet search Guardian

Big Money Intends To Shut Down Our Website Paul Craig Roberts


Neo-McCarthyism and the New Cold War Nation. YY: “John Batchelor Show is a wierd mix of history fetish and reactionary politics (I’m guessing that Bachelor’s audience is primarily “conservative right”) with the exception of the weekly appearance of Stephen Cohen, the one man crusade against Russophobia. So its usually the same message whether he be on John Batcherlor, Salon or the Nation. NC gets a mention in this one though.”




“As part of its web archiving program (https://www.loc.gov/webarchiving/), the Library of Congress is harvesting the Twitter account of Donald J. Trump as part of a collection for the 2016 election.  The Library of Congress anticipates continuing to harvest this Twitter account if President Elect Trump continues to use it in addition to, or perhaps instead of, the existing POTUS Twitter account.  These targeted web harvesting efforts are separate from the Library’s acquisition of the wider body of Twitter content.” [Richard Yarnall, Library of Congress]



Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds is the fifth installment in the National Intelligence Council’s series aimed at providing a framework for thinking about the future. As with previous editions, we hope that this report will stimulate strategic thinking by identifying critical trends and potential discontinuities. We distinguish between megatrends ...
EFF Posting: “Cold River and other books czeched (sic)  out from a library and terms searched on library computers can reveal a teenager’s questions about sexual orientation, a neighbor’s religious leanings, or a student’s political interests. Libraries across the country, particularly public libraries, make it part of their mission to serve the most vulnerable and underserved user groups, including users who are homeless, unemployed, or recent migrants or refugees. And when government agents come looking, these library users need librarians to have their back. Libraries and librarians have long been stalwart guardians of the rights of free expression and inquiry. As part of their profession, librarians protect their users’ ability to access even the most controversial information and ideas free from government scrutiny

DATA Act: Implementation Progresses but Challenges Remain, GAO-17-282T: Published: Dec 8, 2016. Publicly Released: Dec 8, 2016: “The DATA Act requires OMB and Treasury to establish government-wide data standards and requires federal agencies to begin reporting financial and payment data in accordance with these standards by May 2017.

Spread of Fake News Provokes Anxiety in Italy NYT. “[C]oncern that fake news circulated over social media….”
explore.org, the online portal forexplore, is a community destination where people share thoughts, engage in dialogue, view and email films and photographs, and embed their favorites on blogs and social networking sites…. Led by founder Charles Annenberg Weingarten, theexplore Team embarks on fact-finding missions to meet the courageous 
leaders of the non-profit world and document their work through images and films. By sharing their knowledge,explore seeks to connect people to extraordinary cultures and ideas. These expeditions also serve as a way to identify potential recipients for Annenberg Foundation grants. To date, over $69 million has been awarded to over 300 non-profit organizations worldwide.”



Has ABC boss Michelle Guthrie got the insiders on her side?




A Turkish hacking group has turned web attacks into a game by rewarding people who successfully hit designated targets. It is giving loyalty points to hackers for every short-lived attack they mount against a small number of websites. Points are logged on a scoreboard and can be cashed in for free access to other hacking tools. All the targeted websites are run by organisations that oppose Turkey's government. Security firm Forcepoint discovered the site offering the points for attacks. Called "Surface Defence", the site is run from the Tor dark web network and gives hackers access to a web attack tool called Sledgehammer.  



The End of the American Century The Archdruid Report


The New Coolest Thing Online

comdzmom-master768
‘Mom’ is now the highest form of flattery. Witness one Twitter response to a photo of Beyoncé with 
her daughter: “Beyoncé just ENDED your moms, moms mom, moms mom’s cousin, your moms mom’s cousin’s friend, and your moms mom’s cousin’s friends dog.”



The Australian Federal Police is preparing to move out of its owned and operated primary data centre in ACT’s south in favour of a managed “private cloud” solution hosted out of a commercial facility in Canberra.



The new federal chief information security officer says he's off to a good start, but much work remains. "We're not anywhere close to where I feel comfortable," said Greg Touhill, the retired Air Force general tapped by President Barack Obama to lead federal civilian agency cybersecurity. "I don't sleep well at night because I know there's a lot of opportunities out there." The culture of cybersecurity needs to change, he said at a Dec. 7 White House meeting of the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC)


The force secured $32.6 million in the last federal budget to pay for the migration, which is required under the Commonwealth government’s data centre strategy, based around a mandatory central panel of co-located providers. AFP readies data centre move

artsjournalism
This Week: The next wave of arts journalism layoffs begins… Lots of debate about the role of artists in the Trump era… Prominent Canadian artists petition the government to “fix” support for creativity… It’s getting harder to define what “home” is… Is “mindfulness” overrated?





 “To a young person, $1,000 can be a lot of money. To us, it isn’t,” says Strachman. “We collect social geeks—1517 is a search cost.”  King of Facebook 


NGOs are smuggling immigrants into Europe on an industrial scale

Fake News About ‘Fake News’ – The Media Performance Pyramid Media Lens


Digital publications are thriving in Europe where legacy media is weak


“Part of the reason fake news is so easy to believe is that fringe stories no longer read or sound all that different from too many of the real stories. Too often, both have little or no sourcing; they lack context and they get disseminated with almost no fact-checking.” — Greta Van Susteren, former Fox News anchor  


1) Debunking pioneer Craig Silverman will be BuzzFeed's media editor. (2) A TV station takes viewers on the road to help them fact-check stories. (3) Factcheckers.it launches with an educational, rather than informational, mission. (4) HonestAds.org is launching its Polygraph blog to help people fight fake news. (5) BuzzFeed News figures out where Donald Trump gets his news from. (6) More evidence, possibly, that repeating something makes it seem true. (7) Facebook is admitting it needed to do more about fake news and tried something out, probably inadvertently. (8) More partisan fact-checkers, hurray. (9) More depressing news about how many people believe fake news. (10) A look at FactMata, a Google DNI-funded automated fact-checking project.